If you cover high school/low-level college, do you "@" the players/teams on Twitter?

So you don't think you should be trying to get re-tweets? That seems shortsighted to me. I'd think you'd want your work exposed to as many people as possible to get as many hits as possible. It's one thing if it's a kiss-ass tweet; you shouldn't be posting those. But if it's a legit tweet, why not include it, even if it's not a link to a story, so that you could conceivably add a few followers, which could mean more clicks on links when you send out stories later?

And some people have saved searches set up for certain Twitter handles, so including it in your tweet would help reach those users. It's pretty common for people to search for a user's Twitter name to find tweets mentioning them when that person, group or organization is in the news.

 

To sort of back up JimmyHoward's point on this, my thinking is: If you already have that foothold, and everybody who's anybody in your beat already follows you, the athletes will already be following you and often see your tweet. Or, even better, they'll search for your handle after a game knowing you posted it.

I think tagging athletes works best if you're trying to break through on a new beat and gain followers, or you have news you feel they would be very happy to share, like an all-state nod. Kinda kiss-ass, maybe, but something worth celebrating for the athlete.

 

There's a difference between trying to get RTs and pandering. You have to find the line that works for you and your company.

Also a huge pet peeve when people are @'ing the subject of their news and lead off the Tweet with @ ; The vast majority of your followers can't read that unless they're following that guy too. You need a . in front of that @, or just reword your Tweet.

If you say "@JoeBlow33 has committed to State U" no one can read it unless they're following Joe Blow. Should say ".@JoeBlow33 has committed to State U."

 

Here is the bottom line: One of the best ways to "build your brand" is to have a lot of Twitter followers. I would enage the people you cover as much as possible.

Not only do they see that you follow them, you become the source for that school/team.

If I am out running around and am interested in a game, I follow it via Twitter by people who cover that team.

Building your brand helps you keep your job, and can lead to other opportunities.

So whatever you can do to become the expert on your beat (within reason) and get eyeballs on you, you do it.

 

In a numbers based world, you definitely should. Kids retweet it, friends retweet it, throw a link in there and maybe it gets some momentum.

 

I apologize if this is the wrong place to ask, but figured it'd be dumb to start a new thread entirely...

I cover MLS, and I'm starting to see more of my peers using players' handles in their tweets. I've always been of the mind that it wasn't proper etiquette to do so, but seeing at least three longtime, respected scribes undertake this practice in recent weeks has me wondering whether I missed a memo or something. Personally, I don't feel comfortable using a pro athlete's handle when I'm tweeting, whether it's about a story or simple comment on a play or situation.

Am I behind the times on this?

 

I would imagine the players aren't RT'ing those tweets, right? I think the advantage to tagging athletes is them sharing your work, thus giving you more exposure.

If you're writing a feature on one of the players, I'd definitely tag them. For simple PxP, though? Seems like that's overdoing it, to me at least.

 

I started doing it ever since I asked a fellow reporter's daughter (who is also a high school athlete), "Would you rather get your name in the paper or a shout out on Twitter?" and she replied "Oh, shout out on Twitter, definitely."

 

I think tagging is a good idea ... but not if the public in general can't recognize the athlete by their Twitter handle. In that case, I think you need to include the athlete's name, add the handle in parentheses, and work around the character count accordingly.

 

@naturenick, it's funny you mention the daughter's preference for a Twitter S/O. A buddy of mine covers HS sports, and the kids tell him the same thing all the time. It's a funny world we live in.

 

Shoutouts on twitter got me quite a few followers as a result, but you sort of have to pick and choose. You really don't want to tweet something like "Podunk's @mydingaling_69 gets a huge sack on Shelbyville's QB in the backfield."

 

A part of me really wants to start an @mydingaling_69 account now and just tweet ridiculous claims about, well, my dingaling.